Sāhasrabhuja-sāhasranetra Avalokiteśvara

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The Guishan Guanyin of the Thousand Hands and Eyes in Hunan, China.

Sāhasrabhuja-sāhasranetra Avalokiteśvara. [alt. Sāhasrabhujasāhasranetrāvalokiteśvara, Sahasrabhujasahasranetrāvalokiteśvara] (T. Spyan ras gzigs phyag stong spyan stong; C. Qianshou Qianyan Guanyin; J. Senju Sengen Kannon; K. Ch’ŏnsu Ch’ŏnan Kwanŭm 千手千眼觀音).[1][2][3] Translated as: “Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteśvara” or "Avalokiteshvara with one-thousand arms and one-thousand eyes." One of the manifestations of Avalokiteśvara (C. Guanyin), the bodhisattva of compassion.

This form of Avalokiteśvara is typically represented with forty arms, each of which has an eye on its palm, indicating its ability compassionately to see and offer assistance to suffering sentient beings.[1][2] The forty arms and eyes are multiplied by twenty-five, since Avalokiteśvara appears twenty-five realms of existence on behalf of sentient beings. Thus giving Avalokiteśvara a total of a thousand arms and eyes.[1][2]

The first known appearance of this form of Avalokiteśvara is from a painted image in China, which is said to have been made for the Tang dynasty emperor by an Indian monk sometime between 618 and 626.[1]

This form of Avalokiteśvara, or Guanyin, became popular in China through translations of the Qianshou jing (“Thousand Hands Sūtra”; Skt. Nīlakaṇṭhakasūtra) made between the mid-seventh and early-eighth centuries.[1] This text presents a popular dhāraṇī known as the Qianshou tuoluoni (Skt. Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī).

The Guanyin cult become popular in certain areas of China (Chang'an and Sichuan) during the Tang era, and became widespread throughout China by the Song dynasty era.[1] This form of the bodhisattva subsequently spread to Korea, Japan and Tibet.[1]

"In Tibet, this form of Avalokiteśvara is called Sāhasrabhuja-ekādaśamukha Avalokiteśvara (spyan ras gzigs phyag stong zhal bcu gcig), with one thousand arms (often depicted in a fan formation) and eleven heads."[1]

This manifestation of Avalokiteśvara is among the bodhisattva's most popular iconographic forms across China, Japan and Korea.[4][5][6]

Origin story

Shangpa Rinpoche said:

After some time, Avalokiteshvara thought that he would have reduced significantly the number of suffering sentient beings. When he gazed with his wisdom eye from Mount Meru, he was disappointed to find that the numbers had not decreased. He radiated his lights to the six realms another three times to liberate the sentient beings. When he checked again, he was disappointed. With despair, he thought, "Truly as what the Tathagatha has spoken, space is infinite; so like-wise sentient beings are also infinite. I have liberated so many beings and yet their numbers have not decreased. Samsara has no end. I must liberate myself."
With this degenerate thought, he broke his bodhisattva vow. His head cracked into a hundred pieces. With great repentance, he cried to Buddha Amitabha and all the Buddhas for help, " I have not accomplished my purpose and sentient beings' purpose, please help me". Buddha Amitabha appeared, collected the hundred pieces of cracked skull, and transformed them into eleven heads. He blessed ten of them with peaceful appearances and one with wrathful appearance in order to subdue those who could not be subdued by peaceful means.
Buddha Amitabha then instructed, "There is no beginning to samsara. There is also no end to samsara. You must benefit sentient beings until samsara ends."
Avalokiteshvara requested, "If I need to benefit all the sentient beings until samsara ends, may I have one thousand arms, and one thousand eyes. May these one thousand arms manifest as a thousand universal monarchs, and the one thousand eyes manifest as a thousand Buddhas." Buddha Amitabha granted him his wish with one thousand arms and one thousand eyes, each eye in the palm of each hand.[7]

Gallery

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Sāhasrabhujasāhasranetrāvalokiteśvara.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 千手千眼觀音, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (to sign in, see DDB sign-in)
  3. ↑ སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཕྱག་སྟོང་སྤྱན་སྟོང་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
  4. ↑ Jung, Hwang & Hwang 2024.
  5. ↑ Suebsantiwongse 2025.
  6. ↑ Yü 2001.
  7. ↑ Venerable Shangpa Rinpoche. "Arya Avalokitesvara and the Six Syllable Mantra". Dhagpo Kagyu Ling. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. 

Sources

Further reading

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